Nokia N96 smartphone

Until recently Nokia’s N95 was the flagship Symbian phone. Its successor, the N96, certainly has a more modern look ­ rounded corners and a minimalist almost flat fascia ­ but it’s really just an evolution of the N95.

It has the same dual-slide action, but loses the lens cover ­ you just hold down the shutter to start the camera ­ and gains a dedicated keylock switch. There’s also a more sensible position for the headphone socket on the top of the handset.

The software’s had a minor visual update, but will be instantly familiar to Series 60 users, with a more configurable standby screen. The Nokia configuration includes a BBC iPlayer link on the main screen, and it’s easy to use, although you’ll need Wifi to access it. Much has been made of its DVB-H support, but that probably won’t turn out to be of much use in the UK.

Playback of H.264 clips is very good, with a bright, crisp picture; iPlayer downloads are messier, but that’s the BBC’s bit rate, more than the phone.

Battery life is much better than the N95. Even with some video playback and Wifi use, you can go more than two days between charges.

But there are niggles. The phone’s not really any faster than the N95, and the new keypad is too smooth for our liking, with the application and cancel keys a bit small. And when you’re playing video, the keypad dims, so you can’t see which is the pause button. The rear cover comes off for access to the battery, resulting in a slightly cheap plastic feel when you grip the phone.

The RSS reader is useful, but the web browser still compares poorly to other platforms. Sometimes we had to force the screen to change orientation and back again to redraw pages so they could be read. And, while there is Imap support, it’s not as comprehensive as we’d like to see.

The N96 is a good phone but it’s up against stiff competition, and it doesn’t shine. Nor does it do enough, aside from better battery life, to address the niggles of its predecessor.